Fri, Sep 29 2006, Sat, Sep 30 2006 - Caving - Canmore (Explorer Tour) (View Original Event Details)
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Quite possibly the most adventurous trip logged in the brief history of the EOC, this event definitely got the thumbs up from members.
We met Friday evening at the Alpine Club of Canada Clubhouse in Canmore, a beautiful, economical and well appointed place to stay. Saturday morning, after a leisurely breakfast, our guides, Chaz and Elie, took us on what turned out to be a truly amazing trip into the depths under Grotto Mountain.
After getting our safety instruction we hiked for ~30 minutes up the south slope of Grotto Mountain to the cave entrance. Along the way Elie stopped to point out some characteristic features of the local flora and fauna, and we all had a chance to keep an eye out for fossils embedded in the limestone.
At the mouth of the cave we stopped for a bite to eat and donned an assortment of protective gear including knee pads, coveralls, gloves, hard hats with lights, and cows tails - a sort of belt used to secure cavers to safety lines in areas near large drops.
To enter the cave, all 13 of us squeezed onto a narrow ledge, precariously perched above a chasm known as the bone pit – a 15 metre hole containing the bones of 34 different species dating back over 7000 years (none of which, fortunately, turned out to be the remains of lost cavers!) From the bone pit we began our trip through the caves, walking, crawling, bum shuffling and occasionally slithering on our stomachs through breath taking caverns big enough to hold two semi-trucks and the narrowest of narrow passages (some narrow enough to be reminiscent of a second trip down the birth canal.) Congrats to Colleen for making it through the laundry chute, and to everyone who mastered the psychological (and physical) squeeze of “the challenge”.
In total, we spent almost 3.5 hours underground, admiring the stalagmites, stalactites and the soda straws, marveling at how black it really is when all the head lights are turned off, and getting thoroughly muddy. At last, however, it was time to return to the world above ground. We emerged, blinking, into afternoon sun, headed back down the mountain and finished up by soaking up the last of the warm weather and recounting our adventures with a drink on a patio in Canmore.
Our thanks to Chaz and Elie for making our trip such an enjoyable and informative experience – their expertise truly made the event one to be remembered for a lifetime.
Have some photos from this event that you'd like to share in our photo album? Please forward them to Mark G at photos@edmontonoutdoorclub.com. If you have a LOT of photos, please submit up to thirty of your favourites (only) for a day event, or up to sixty of your favourites for a multi-day event. Thank you.